Dear valued Readers,

The Pandemic of COVID-19 has affected most of programmes implementation in every institution, BIOTROP is not an exception. Following the letters of Secretary General, Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia and SEAMEO Secretariat, SEAMEO BIOTROP Director issued letter no. 783/S.Edaran/III/2020 dated 16 March 2020 on regulation to prevent COVID-19 spread in SEAMEO BIOTROP. For the first time, BIOTROP decrees an instruction for the staff to conduct Work from Home (WFH) started from 17 to 27 March 2020. Furthermore, through a series of letters, BIOTROP extended WFH mechanism until 3 June 2020.

In responded the issues of COVID-19, one of BIOTROP’s research assistant wrote an article on Detection Methods of COVID-19, A Significant Step to Prevent Its Spread. The article was written to inform our readers that testing is one of the key factor in tracking the transmission of COVID-19, which is important during the pandemic period for quickly identifying and isolating people having symptoms of COVID-19.

Instead of conducting usual face to face activities that required physical attendance, during the WFH period BIOTROP conducted several online activities, including Training Course on Urban Agriculture and Sharing Session with BIOTROP’s Experts. However, online activities for some reasons were more efficient and effective in terms of cost and number of participants. Therefore, after the full WFH mechanism ended on 4 July 2020 and BIOTROP decreed half Work from Office (WFO) and half WFH, online activities were still being conducted. The WFO mechanism was conducted by following health protocol as suggested by WHO and Indonesian Government. During WFO, everyone is required to wear mask and wash hands more often than usual. These online things and new daily practices were considered as ‘New Normal’ things.

In order to enhance Centre’s staff capacity, Deputies Director of seven SEAMEO Centres in Indonesia initiated an in-house training activity through series of online sharing session on various areas of administration and management expertise. Centres' staff who have expertise in certain field served as resource persons. Board of Directors and staff from seven SEAMEO Centres in Indonesia joined the online sessions.

We do hope the pandemic of COVID-19 will be over soon. Nevertheless, with the support of information technology advancements, BIOTROP has transformed its services by embracing online activities to reach more beneficiaries and broader coverage with more cost effective. We are fortunate that Pandemic, enables us to intensify our online programmes which has been initiated for the last two years. We have to be ready to be part of ‘New Normal’ life and we are optimist that we will produce high achievement with hard work and smart work. Stay health and keep alive!